This one comes as a surprise to me (Daniel ‘Blue Eyes’ Dykes) too. After his great stint helming The World Is Not Enough and all the reports that he will return, it seems that director Michael Apted (who directed the wonderful 7 Up series) may not return to helm Bond 20.

Pierce Brosnan has been talking about potential candidates to helm the next 007 film, and one man in particular: “It would be great to have Ang Lee, I saw Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and I said to him. I’d love you to do James Bond. He said he’d love to do James Bond and I believe he was sincere”. There’s a catch, Lee always has final cut on his movies – something never given on a Bond movie before.

This news did come as a shock to me, but I can confirm that I was recently speaking to someone (name and details withheld for privacy’s sake) who mentioned that Apted probably wouldn’t be helming the film.